Approximations between the functioning of the Didactic Sequence Methodology and the concept of Zone of Proximal Development

Abstract

The procedure “didactic sequence” was developed by the researchers from the Geneva Group affiliated with the Sociodiscursive Interactionism with the objective of creating a language teaching methodology that the students could learn language practices that are configured in textual genres. However, this expression has become popular in Brazil and has been frequently used in indiscrimate ways by teachers, researches, magazine editors etc. Given this scenario, it is of extreme relevance to promote the understanding of this methodological procedure so that it can be used in a coherent form and so as that the objectives targeted by their mentors can be attained, namely, the developmen tof languages capacities associated to the reading and production of a textual genre. Therefore, this paper, resulting from our PhD research, aims to present the gears that move this didactic tool from its theoretical perspective, the social interactionism of Vigotski, in this case, represented by the Zone of Proximal Development notion. To structure the paper, the proposed association is illustrated with data and discussions generated by field research, with a collaborative-interventionist characteristic, developed during the PhD research.

Key words: Portuguese language learning, didactic sequence, zone of proximal development.